Report Number: CSL-TR-93-554
Institution: Stanford University, Computer Systems Laboratory
Title: Using a Floating-Point Multiplier's Internals for High-Radix Division and Square Root
Author: Schwarz, Eric M.
Author: Flynn, Michael J.
Date: January 1993
Abstract: A method for obtaining high-precision approximations of high-order arithmetic operations at low-cost is presented in this study. Specifically, high-precision approximations of the reciprocal (12 bits worst case) and square root (16 bits) operations are obtained using the internal hardware of a floating-point multiplier without the use of look-up tables. The additional combinatorial logic necessary is very small due to the reuse of existing hardware. These low-cost high-precision approximations are used by iterative algorithms to perform the operations of division and square root. The method presented also applies to several other high-order arithmetic operations. Thus, high-radix algorithms for high-order arithmetic operations such as division and square root are possible at low-cost.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/csl/tr/93/554/CSL-TR-93-554.pdf